Washington, Oct 21.- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that the number of new cases of tuberculosis decreased steadily in recent years, but is still high among marginalized and low-income populations.
Over the past year, some 10 million people have fallen ill with tuberculosis, seven million of whom receive unprecedented levels of life-saving treatment, but three million still do not have access given the severe funding shortages that put populations at risk.
This progress allowed the world to reach one of the most important milestones in the fulfillment of the objectives of the United Nations Political Declaration on this evil, explains the latest WHO report on the subject.
It also points out that in 2018 deaths from this disease decreased: 1.5 million compared to 1.6 million in 2017.
This shows that global goals are achievable if forces are joined through the Stop TB Partnership and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO.
To achieve that goal, the world must accelerate progress if it is to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of ending tuberculosis by 2030, the senior official said.
Today, in many countries, fragile health infrastructure and a shortage of health workers make it difficult to make timely diagnosis and provide appropriate treatments for the disease.
Weak reporting systems are another problem, as while health care providers treat people, they do not report cases to national authorities, leaving an incomplete picture of national epidemics and service needs, the report says.
In addition, up to 80 percent of patients in high-burden countries spend more than 20 percent of their annual household income on the treatment of the disease.
WHO estimates that international funding, which is critical for many low- and middle-income countries, amounts to 900 million dollars in 2019, of which 73 percent comes from the Global Fund, while the deficit for prevention and care will be 3.3 billion dollars.